1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the intercalation of graphite with a Lewis acid fluoride in the presence of chlorine trifluoride and hydrogen fluoride thereby producing novel compositions of matter that are useful, for example, as cathode-active materials.
2. Prior Art
Graphite forms intercalation compounds with a wide variety of materials. These inclusion or intercalation compounds have been described as being heteropolar because of their ionic character. See, for example, Angew. Chem. Internat. Edit., Vol. 2 (1963) No. 2. Indeed, graphite has been shown to form salts with sulfates and nitrates, and, in particular, the nitrate salt of graphite [3HNO.sub.3 .multidot.NO.sub.3.sup.- ]C.sub.24.sup.+ has been shown to have conductivity which approaches that of copper. See Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond., A325, p. 437 (1971).
Graphite has also been reported to form intercalation compounds with hydrogen fluoride; see, for example, Russian J. of Inorg. Chem., 17, p. 632 (1972); and with hydrogen fluoride and chlorine trifluoride. See, for example, Russian J. of Inorg. Chem., 17, p. 1366 (1972).
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,844,837, lamellar graphite compounds, such as the tetrafluoroborate salt of graphite, are described. These compounds were prepared by impressing an electric current between an anode and a graphite cathode immersed in a nonaqueous salt solution such as a nonaqueous solution of lithium tetrafluoroborate.
Mention should also be made of the interaction of graphite with antimony pentafluoride in the presence of chlorine trifluoride to produce a green compound with the proposed formula C.sub.8.sup.+ SbF.sub.6.sup.- ClF.sub.3. See Russian J. of Inorg. Chem., 19, p. 827 (1974).